IABC International Conference … pumped up about our profession
Almost 1,800 communicators from around the world were in New York for the 2008 IABC International Conference. IABC Wellington President, Simon Pleasants, reports back on our association’s pre-eminent professional development and networking event.
For myself, it was great to be in a place where everyone was so pumped up about our profession and what we can achieve for the people who come to us for advice.
The conference started with Nicholas Negroponte’s opening on the Sunday (he of One Laptop Per Child fame) and ran full tilt until ideas man Seth Godin’s entertaining and inspiring closing session (get a feel for the man at TED). All the sessions, including the general sessions, were informative and I was fortunate to hear many well-recognised speakers from around the world talking about communication leadership, public relations, strategy and counsel, change management, employee communication, global trends, and marketing and brand.
It was IABC’s most successful gathering in years, with tickets sold out for the Gold Quill Awards dinner, lunch-and-learning events and day passes. There was a strong interactive element in all the sessions I attended, allowing attendees to share their views about communications issues facing their many organisations worldwide. Popular seminars were standing room only.
My disappointment at being turned away from one became delight at the networking one can do with others in the same predicament — in that case e-God Shel Holz and IABC President Julie Freeman. At other times, I developed excellent contacts with senior communications professionals from Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia, India, Britain and Europe.
Going to one of these things requires an outlay of several thousand dollars for flights, accommodation and attendance — that’s before the gifts you have to bring home for your teenage daughters! The myriad local commercially-organised “media relations summits” and “internal communications congresses” are okay in their own way, often offering some of the best New Zealand speakers, but at IABC’s annual conference you get some of the best in the world.
So if you’re a senior communications practitioner looking for an intense few days of new ideas, great contacts, and superb learning, with measurable return on investment, PLUS a fun time, then I recommend you seriously consider being in San Francisco for the IABC International Conference, 14-17 June 2009.